Along with the employees of Planet Express, Futurama includes a large array of characters: co-workers, media personalities, business owners, extended relatives, townspeople, aliens, and villains. Many of these characters were created for one-time gags, background scenes or other functions in the Futurama universe. A number of them have gained expanded roles and subsequently starred in their own episodes. Other characters started out as background characters, and have been used to personify new roles later on in the series.